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Anchorage - Everybody needs a shoulder to lean on now and then. A walrus calf at the Alaska SeaLife Centre in Seward, Alaska, is getting one 24 hours a day.

Trained staff members, working in pairs, are touching, massaging and cuddling a calf all day and all night as part of its recuperation. The calf, estimated to be about 6 weeks old, was found last month without its mother several kilometres outside Nome.

Walrus are highly social and spend two years with their mothers, said Jennifer Gibbins, marketing and communications director for the centre.

Walrus have practical reasons for refined touching. They use their hundreds of short, highly sensitive whiskers to search for clams and other seafood on the ocean floor, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

A sea otter, ringed seal and two harbour seals also are receiving care. Most of the centre's rehabbed animals return to the wild, but the young walrus won't be.

"We can care for this calf. We can take care of its health. We can give it some good social interaction. But we cannot teach that animal how to be an animal in the wild," Gibbins said. "That's why they're non-releasable."

No decision has been made on placement. The SeaLife Centre will determine what facility can give it the best veterinary and social care.

"This walrus needs to be with other walrus," she said. The centre expects to house the animal through summer and into the fall.

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